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Friday, January 09, 2015

Kowloon & Hong Kong Island

As we approached the new year, the hostel was also filling up with visitors. We had to switch the room for one day as I had not got the one we were stating for that extra day. We checked out and left our luggage in the common locker room and headed on our daily tour.

Having finished lots of the outskirts, it was now required that we explore the main island and areas close to the harbour. So we headed to Tsim Sha Tsui in the morning and went to the Hong Kong Museum of art. Just outside the museum was this display of a beautiful structure created with Bamboo.

This museum has some interesting display of contemporary art. Some very creative ones were of video displays of day to day life. Some noted works of Tong King-Sum and Zhang Bu were also in display. Ancient Chinese art of cherry flowers and bamboo plants painted on silk are just brilliant.

After here, we walked to the promenade and got a bright sunny view of the HK island.

A regular crowd puller, this promenade starts with avenue of stars where many celebrities have left their hand impressions on the pavement similar to the ones in the Hollywood street. I could only recognise that of Jackie Chan. There are several other sculptures with which the tourists love to take pictures. This place was full of action.

We walked back to Nathan road and decided to go to the Chung King Mansion that Stefan had suggested I must visit. Chung King Mansion has several guesthouses which are really cramped. But it also houses the highest population of Indians. There are Indian restaurants in every floor. Since this place is so cramped and confusing, there is a representative from the restaurant standing at the main gate to lead you. But thats part of the problem because there are many such people. We had read reviews of one restaurant called Smrat and were looking for it when another guy from a restaurant called Sarvana took us saying that his restaurant was the best in Hong Kong. On our way, we met the guy from Smrat who then took us to the third floor. It would have been impossible to find this place otherwise. Both the restaurants are pure veg. Smart is a Punjabi restaurant and serve amazing Parathas and dishes. While returning the guy from Sarvana requested me to visit his restaurant at least once. I promised him to come there the next day. We also found a grocery store in the first floor where we bought some ready-to-eat Dal.

After lunch, we went to the HK museum of science. It was impressive to see such an active place for the kids. It has several interactive displays for kids to learn basic physics. It was fun simply watching all the kids play with them. The museum is huge; three storied.

Our next stop was the Bank of China not he other side of the harbour. Bank of China has free viewing lobby for visitors at the 65th floor but it is required to carry your passports or any photo identity. Last time we had tried to go up we had not carried our passports with us. But we did not have any luck this time as well. By the time we reached it was 5:30 PM, half an hour past the closing time. Sadly, we just walked out and near the admiralty station took a bus to the peak. It is then that we got a glimpse of how many tourists were pouring into the city for the 31st night. The bus was full at our stop. At the top there was a long queue both for buses and trams going back. It was crazy. We ran up to the sky terrace to catch the night view. The prices for the viewing had also been doubled but the view was worth all that. It was spectacular night view of the city with the most number of skyscrapers. I think these pictures will speak better.

While returning we did not even attempt the bus route. Instead took the long but fast moving tram queue. We had to wait about 45 minutes to get the ride but the ride was only 8 minutes long compared to the bus that takes 30 minutes or more in heavy traffic. In this mad crowd, I think tram was a life saver.